Carat has promoted Weichong Khor as head of digital & e-commerce, leading the agency's e-commerce team.

Prior to joining Carat in 2013, Khor worked across Silicon Valley, Singapore and Shanghai. In previous roles Khor has successfully led tech start-up businesses including Brandtology, where he served as the North Asia Regional Business Director, as well as agency experience including Razorfish, where he developed social strategies for brands such as NIKE, GAP and Converse.

Ellen Hou, Carat CEO said; “E-commerce continues to see significant growth and is increasingly an intrinsic part of our clients marketing plans. As Carat’s head of digital, Khor has been successful in embedding mobile first strategies and the development of new products. With 72% of ecommerce transactions now happening on mobile, he is uniquely equipped to lead the development of an integrated e-commerce approach.”

“This is a very exciting time. The market is changing rapidly and e-commerce is central to our client’s business,” said Khor.

“The surge in mobile payment has seen the shortening the purchase cycle down to a few minutes, or even seconds. Integrated data, content and commerce solutions are critical in enabling us to more accurately identify target audiences and reach them more effectively”.

Khor is the current MMA, deputy chair for the mobile advertising guideline committee which focuses on the development of measurement & ad standards in China.

电讯盈科主席李泽楷旗下的新媒体公司Stakk几乎裁掉所有员工，只剩下七名物流人员，该公司的主播（如图）上周五在Facebook上进行直播。

作为公司重组的一部分，该媒体公司已于六月份削减了24名IT人员，包括技术总监，以吸引更多中国读者。

周五的裁员再次反映了其转攻中国读者，远离本地化内容。

Stakk的一名发言人表示，该公司正对内容进行重组改革，并将为未来的观众带来新的体验。

Stakk通过有趣的视频内容来吸引年轻观众，于2016年4月首次推出，其Facebook专页目前拥有约758万名粉丝。

凯络宣布擢升许炜崇（Weichong Khor）为数字与电商营销负责人，负责领导凯络的电商团队。

在2013年加入凯络前，许炜崇拥有在硅谷、新加坡和上海的从业经历。他曾效力于科技创业公司，如在Brandtology担任北亚区域业务总监，并曾服务于睿域营销等代理公司，为耐克、GAP和匡威等知名品牌制定社交媒体策略。

凯络中国CEO侯静雯（Ellen Hou）表示：「电商业务快速发展，已经成为客户营销计划必不可少的一部分。在担任凯络数字前瞻负责人期间，许炜崇成功推广以移动为先的策略，并致力于开发新的数字产品及服务。在当前电商交易中移动端占比达72%的背景下，他是领导凯络推动整合电商营销战略的不二人选。」

许炜崇表示：「这是一个振奋人心的时代。中国的发展日新月异，电商已经成为客户业务的核心。」

「移动支付的激增使购买周期骤降为几分钟，甚至数秒。数据、内容和电商的整合式解决方案将有助于我们帮助客户准确定位并更有效地触达目标受众。」

许炜崇兼任MMA中国无线营销联盟移动广告标准委员会副秘书长，致力于推动中国市场广告效果评估及广告标准的发展。

Ogilvy & Mather Asia has appointed Benoit Wiesser as its new Asia chief strategy officer. Wiesser succeeds Paul Matheson, who has relocated to Oslo, Norway. He will remain with Ogilvy in a global planning capacity, and will continue working with the Asia team.

The appointment follows Ogilvy's announcement of a global transformation agenda to put its OgilvyOne and Ogilvy PR all under the same corporate roof. (Read more: Ogilvy’s global restructure to bring all agencies under one roof)

Wiesser is currently based in Singapore. He will focus on the continued innovation and integration of Ogilvy’s breadth of strategic capabilities as a marketing offer.

"Benoit is an excellent and natural choice for the role, having led integrated strategy on numerous accounts that have led to award-winning success globally as well as across the region," said Ogilvy & Mather Asia co-CEOs, Kent Wertime and Chris Reitermann.

Wiesser said, "I am both humbled and hugely fired up to be given this opportunity to lead such a diverse and talented group of people. Together, we will ensure that Ogilvy continues to thrive and our clients receive the highest standards of partnership across the region."

Nielsen has introduced an e-commerce digital shelf solution, Digital Shelf 360, to China through a strategic partnership with Profitero, an e-commerce solution firm in Europe. This new capability looks to help global and local brand clients combine digital storefront data with actual sales data to help better understand the effect on performance.

With Digital Shelf 360, the company can offer not only a more accurate and complete read of Chinese e-commerce landscape, but also a comprehensive view of product content compliance, search visibility, price and promotion, sentiment analysis, rating, stock and competitors across e-Tailers.

Digital Shelf 360 is currently the sole product in the market that can integrate digital shelf analysis with most standard sales and share data from Nielsen. The solution identifies specific opportunities to improve performance and details the direct impact of online sales across all channels through actionable reports and real-time alerts. Thus, companies may immediately discern competition and also gain insights for client’s business to drive sales and build brand equity.

Nielsen China managing director Vishal Bali said: "China has quickly risen to become the largest e-commerce market in the world. Brands looking to succeed in this environment need an explicit understanding of the dynamics of online sales and activation. Our strategic alliance with Profitero offers our clients unprecedented insights into how to drive performance within e-commerce platforms.”

Profitero CEO and co-founder Vol Pigrukh added: “No two e-commerce markets are the same, and China stands out as a particularly unique market landscape. In order to succeed, brands need in-depth insights specifically catered to the context of their APAC and China e-commerce performance, as well as overall, global performance.”

Before officially launching in China, Digital shelf 360 has tracked more than 450 million products across 5,000 online stores in more than 50 e-commerce markets. It is already monitoring the digital shelf in China for the world's largest brands - providing a "big picture" of their overall global e-commerce performance, and nuanced insights specific to the local e-tail market. This includes the daily monitoring and reporting of more than 50 retailers in China and measuring the performance of best-selling products across key categories on China’s the biggest e-tailers.

Southco Asia, a subsidiary of Southco, a global provider of engineered access solutions such as locks, latches, captive fasteners, electronic access solutions and hinges/positioning technology, has announced the appointment of Joaquin Tam as general manager of Greater China. He reports to Jay Lu, managing director, Asia Pacific at Southco.

Based in Hong Kong—Southco’s Asia Pacific headquarters, Tam will provide strategic leadership to drive sustainable and profitable growth in the Greater China region. In addition, he will also lead Southco’s Asia Pacific Diversified Technologies business unit to drive revenue growth across the Asia Pacific region.

Tam comes to Southco with more than 25 years of global leadership experience. He has a proven track record in strategic acquisitions and delivering rapid and sustained business growth. Prior to joining Southco, Mr. Tam was general manager of Southern China & vice president of sales and marketing for North Asia at Bureau Veritas. He also worked as group sales & marketing director at Jardine Schindler Group.

Jay Lu, managing director, Asia Pacific, said, “I am pleased to welcome Joaquin to the Southco Greater China management team. Greater China is a market that is unparalleled given its vibrancy, fast-development, scale and diversity. I am confident that with Joaquin’s twenty-plus years of experience in the region, he is capable of leading Southco to grow in this dynamic environment.”

IPG Mediabrands has launched Rapport in Malaysia, a global specialist network agency in the out-of-home (OOH) sector. According to the network, the launch of Rapport strengthens IPG Mediabrands’ offering in Malaysia, ensuring a complete service to its clients that will focus on integrating outdoor advertising, mobile, digital and emerging technologies.

With this launch, Rapport will be the first OOH specialist in Malaysia to offer an approach that includes mobile and digital, beyond traditional OOH formats. Malaysia is only the second market in Asia to carry the Rapport service.

Leading Rapport in Malaysia as managing director is Hor Jian Tsin. He will lead a specialised team capable of understanding the connections between brands and the behaviour of its consumers, within a rapidly evolving industry such as OOH. Hor (pictured) reports directly to Bala Pomaleh, CEO of IPG Mediabrands, who is highly experienced in the OOH sector in Malaysia.

Hor said: “We are extremely excited about Rapport as it brings in a whole new approach to outdoor advertising, not just looking into traditional OOH formats, but forming more engaging campaigns that have a mobile element. Through this connectivity we are creating highly adaptive and innovative OOH experiences that better allows brands to engage with consumers.”

Bala added, “We see the strength of OOH in Malaysia, especially given the growth of digital OOH. Progressive technologies, mobile and social listening have allowed us to become even more connected with our consumers. It is our desire for Rapport to create a competitive advantage for advertisers, and the launch of Rapport Malaysia clearly reflects this ambition, placing us at the centre of strategic OOH planning for clients.”

Global investment firm GIC has appointed Wu Choy Peng (pictured) as chief technology officer. In the newly created role, Wu will play a key role in developing GIC's technology vision, strategic direction and future growth in technology, to boost organisational capabilities. She is also responsible for overseeing technology and data analytics.

According to the press statement, the new chief technology officer role was created to expand GIC's leadership bench as it prepares for an environment of increasing disruptive innovation. GIC declined to comment further.

Prior to her latest appointment, Wu was the group chief information officer at Singtel for more than five years. She held a similar role at Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) for more than six years. Before joining Singtel and NOL, Wu was government chief information officer at GovTech, formerly known as Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, for over six years. She has also worked at the Ministry of Education, Singapore as chief information officer.

BBDO Hong Kong has won the AIDS Concern business following a 4-agency pitch.

It will be responsible for delivering a 2-year campaign to achieve “Triple zero” – Zero new infections, Zero stigma, and Zero AIDS deaths – through increased HIV-AIDS testing in Hong Kong.

AIDS Concern is the first non-government charity organisation established in Hong Kong to address HIV-AIDS care.

Derek Chung, program officer at AIDS Concern, said: “BBDO Hong Kong’s talent is so culturally diverse and just felt right for our creative brief. We are excited to see how this unique project will provoke discussion in the community.”

JC Catibog, managing director of BBDO South China and Greater China chairperson for Omnicom’s OPEN Pride LGBT initiative, said: "We have the highest admiration for the work AIDS Concern does as an organisation, and are humbled by the opportunity to accelerate understanding, acceptance and most importantly – action, in promoting HIV-AIDS testing and sexual health in Hong Kong.”

工程进入解决方案供应商索斯科（Southco Asia Ltd.）宣布委任谭秋朗（Joaquin Tam）为索斯科亚洲大中华区总经理，驻职于索斯科设于香港的亚太区总部，直接向亚太区执行董事陆剑军汇报工作。

谭秋朗全面负责大中华区的业务，制定及执行区内的战略规划并领导销售团队，为区内推动可持续的利润增长。他同时专责领导亚太地区多元化科技业务，促进各地团队紧密合作和建立长远发展计划。

谭秋朗拥有超过25年丰富的全球管理经验，曾在多家跨国企业担任重要职务，包括企业战略收购、全球业务管理和大中华区管理，成功为公司带来持续性利润增长。在履新索斯科前，谭秋朗曾于必维国际检验集团（Bureau Veritas）出任集团北亚市场销售和行销副总裁及华南区总经理。在此之前，他于怡和迅达集团（Jardine Schindler Group）任职集团的销售和市场董事。

索斯科亚太区执行董事陆剑军表示：「我们很高兴谭秋朗先生加入我们大中华区的管理团队。凭借他对区内市场的了解及在跨国企业的彪炳往绩，再加上其领导经验，对索斯科来说是一个宝贵的资产，我相信他能为我司及客户创造更大的价值。大中华区是一个充满活力、高速发展、大规模及多元化的市场，因此，我们将致力与他合作继续扩充我们业务。」

绩效管理公司尼尔森宣布在中国市场推出全新的电商解决方案——Digital Shelf Solution。该产品是尼尔森与欧洲互联网解决方案公司Profitero联合推出，将有效帮助全球品牌客户进一步理解线上销售情况与实际销售数据间的关联。

尼尔森现有的电商测量数据，连同此次推出的Digital Shelf Solution，尼尔森不仅可以为客户提供更为精准复杂的中国电商全景解读，同时还能提供跨电商的360度全景分析, 包括产品内容合规性、提高线上搜索的可见性、价格和促销分析、产品评论与情感分析、以及竞争对手分析等等内容。

此次尼尔森推出Digital Shelf Solution是市面上唯一能够将一整套线上数字货架分析与尼尔森数据进行整合分析的解决方案。通过Digital Shelf Solution，客户可以以最为便捷地方式获取其电商业务整体简况，深刻探讨并改善其线上表现，通过其提供的有执行性的报告与实时预警功能，及时准确把握其电商表现并理解影响线上各个渠道销售的背后动因，能深入各个领域确立竞争基准，深刻洞察以促进销售并塑造品牌价值。

尼尔森中国区经理韦劭说：「中国如今已经成为非常重要的电商市场，因此企业和品牌商获得一份线上销售情况的全景图有助于他们全面深刻的理解中国市场的线上交易情况是非常重要的。通过与Profitero的战略合作，尼尔森能为客户提供更为全面而可靠的电商解决方案，同时对中国电商全景提出全新见解，助力品牌商在线上发展取得成功。」

Profitero公司的首席执行官、联合创始人Vol Pigrukh说：「各国电子商务市场不尽相同，品牌商需要对中国市场有深入而独到的见解。预计到2019年，中国电商市场将会占据半数以上的全球线上零售市场。」

Digital Shelf Solution在中国正式推出前已经用于全球50余个电商市场的5,000家线上商店超过4.5亿件产品的跟踪分析。并且，Digital Shelf Solution还同时和全球著名大品牌商合作, 对其中国地区的数字货架进行监控，为品牌商提供其全球线上业务表现概况，精准洞察本地电子商务零售市场，其中包括对中国市场50余家电商的每日监控报告以及专门针对中国主要电商的核心品类与热销产品的表现监测。

AXA Insurance Singapore has appointed Jean Drouffe (pictured) as its new CEO. He takes over from Doina Palici-Chehab, who has been promoted to interim regional CEO of AXA Asia, and will report to her.

Drouffe will focus on growing the business in Singapore, and his job scope encompasses the life, general insurance and health businesses locally.

He has worked at the company for 17 years and was regional CEO for the general insurance businesses at AXA Asia, during which he was based in Hong Kong. Prior to working in Hong Kong, Drouffe was director general for the western region at AXA France for over two years, and group finance director at AXA UK for more than three years. Before helming the role as group finance director, he was the chief financial officer at AXA UK for over two years. Drouffe first joined in 2000 where he was instrumental in launching the AXA Group Risk Management practice through various roles in the Economic Capital project.

“It is an incredible honour to lead AXA Insurance in Singapore. I am excited to start work with my colleagues here, building upon the achievements Palici-Chehab and the team have accomplished while pressing forward with the important work of transforming our business model from payer to partner,” Drouffe said.

Palici-Chehab took over the role from Jean-Louis Laurent Josi, former regional chief executive officer of AXA Asia, who stepped down in June. She was the CEO of AXA Insurance Singapore for over four years, and prior to that, helmed the role of CEO at AXA Business Services in India for three years.

“Singapore is a dynamic market with a diverse economy. With our unique breadth and depth of solutions spanning all lines of businesses, we are well positioned to continue our growth journey here. I look forward to working with the Singapore team to achieve AXA’s vision of empowering people to live better lives," he added.

In June, AXA appointed Etienne Bouas-Laurent to succeed Stuart Harrison as CEO of AXA Hong Kong, effective 1 September 2017. Bouas-Laurent will continue to report to Jean-Louis Laurent Josi, regional CEO of AXA Asia.

Last year, AXA Singapore's chief marketing officer Li Choo Kwek exited the role after close to five years. The news came soon after AXA Asia appointed Frédéric Tardy as regional chief marketing, digital, data and customer officer, reporting directly to Laurent Josi. The company also named Marc Blottiere as regional chief operating officer of AXA Asia, who also reports to Laurent Josi. Meanwhile, in March last year, Thomas Buberl was named CEO of AXA, replacing Henri de Castries who had been in the role for 17 years.

As a precautionary measure, Ribena Malaysia has recalled five types of its concentrate after it found that the products were exposed to air during the bottling process. This, the company said, may cause its cordials to be spoil before the indicated expiry date.

In a statement to the press, the company said a preliminary investigation of the manufacturing process has led the company to suspect that the product was exposed to air during the bottling process.

The five types of Ribena concentrate with specific expiry dates which are affected include Ribena Concentrate Blackcurrant Regular, Ribena Concentrate Blackcurrant and Glucose, Ribena Concentrate Blackcurrant and Strawberry, Ribena Concentrate Blackcurrant and Blueberry and Ribena Concentrate Blackcurrant and Apple. Its ready-to-drink products such as the Sparkling Ribena, Pouch Pack, Packet Drinks, PET Bottles and Pastilles are not affected.

"This appears to cause the product in random bottles to potentially deteriorate in quality earlier than the expiry date," it said.

The company also posted on Facebook to inform its fans and consumers about its decision on 14 August. It also warned consumers not to have the product if it appears to be "unusual, taste or smell sourish".

The company said it's conducting further investigation in finding out the cause of the product quality deterioration and this should be completed by early next week.

"We have also halted production of Ribena concentration products until all investigations are fully completed," it added. The company also apologised to its consumers and said it is currently “working hard to resolve this issue urgently and hope to reinstall all Ribena products back on the shelves very soon.

A+M has reached out to Ribena for more comments.

Tencent and J. Walter Thompson Shanghai have leveraged a popular children’s folk song to encourage consumers to choose Tencent mobile top-up feature – and help keep rural children, left behind by parents seeking a better livelihood, connected with their families.

Over 60 million children are living with aging relatives in China’s remote, rural villages, left behind by parents who’ve migrated to cities to seek work. These villagers are often too poor to afford phones to help stay in touch.

To help these children, Tencent mobile top-up, Tencent charity and One Foundation established the Echo Plan in 2016, which since has set up dedicated hotlines in child service centres in some of China’s poorest villages to allow children to make calls to their parents. Every time a consumer chooses to top up their mobile phone with WeChat or QQ wallet’s top up feature, Tencent donates a portion of proceeds to the Echo plan.

“Give us the time of a song”, the campaign video created by JWT for Tencent, aims to drive awareness of the Echo Plan, and encourage consumers to make a difference by topping up phone credit with WeChat wallet instead of a competing service.

The film at the heart of the campaign shows village children in rural Guizhou singing Lu Bin Hua, a song taught to them by their parents, who’ve since left, that talks about the bonding between mother and child. A little girl says she’s like her mom to teach her another song. The films urge viewers to make that wish come true by choosing Wechat or QQ wallet to top up their phone.

“Charge for love”, which launched on 20 July on social media, drew two million views in the first week and spurred Tencent mobile top-up feature usage that, in turn, generated 300,000 RMB in donations in just two days. To date, the overall video viewership has reached over 30 million.

“Chinese consumers admire brands that make a difference in society. They also want to make a difference themselves. 'Charge for love' helps elevate the brand while encouraging consumers to make a difference simply by using Tencent’s services,” said Hu Gang, executive creative director at J. Walter Thompson Shanghai.

“Nowadays, the internet has everything connected - including people’s hearts. Tencent mobile top-up strives to let the left behind children have more opportunities to talk with their parents and bring them closer,” said Vincent Lin, general manager of Tencent FiT financial department.

Media Prima’s tonton has inked a strategic marketing partnership agreement with DST, a telco in Brunei, to bring its OTT streaming service to Brunei.  The deal also marks tonton’s second venture outside of Malaysia this year, after it signed a similar deal with Singtel back in May this year.

Director of tonton and licensing and merchandising at Media Prima Television Networks, Airin Zainul said tonton which was launched last year, is now expanding and it wants to bring quality Malaysian and international content to Bruneians through this exclusive partnership with DST.

“Our aim is to expand tonton internationally. In May this year, we signed a similar collaboration with Singtel to reach into the Singaporean market. Today, by signing this agreement, tonton is officially available in Brunei," Zainul said, adding that all of DST’s customers will be able to access tonton via the app and that the launch will enable Bruneians to also catch the KL 2017 SEA Games.

"By end of this year, we hope to be available in one more regional country. We hope to expand the brand and its content outside of Malaysia, delivering our local content to the world” she said.

Hj Marsad Hj Ismail, deputy CEO of DST added with this latest partnership, said DST will be able to provide a broader selection of infotainment services for its subscribers, as it aims to be a service that is in continuous demand and versatile across different consumer lifestyles.

"Being the only local company providing 4G services currently, we want to keep being the leading company that can enhance our customer’s digital experience and we are positive that customers will enjoy tonton,” he said.  Currently, info-telecommunications company DST has a subscriber base of over 400,000 in Brunei both for postpaid and prepaid services, and an almost 100% population penetration in the country, said the company.

tonton, MPTN’s OTT platform, offers linear channels and over 30,000 hours of catch-up and premium video content, which includes the latest dramas up to six months before TV, talk shows, and movies made in Malaysia. With more than seven million users todate, 80% of its offerings are local content. tonton said it continues to add over 22,000 new members weekly.

腾讯手机充值与上海智威汤逊携手运用一首脍炙人口的儿童民谣，鼓励消费者使用腾讯手机充值服务，以此帮助农村留守儿童与家人建立亲密关系。

在中国偏远的农村，有超过6000多万因父母移居他乡为寻找工作而被留下的儿童与老年人生活在一起。其中一些家庭因为太穷负担不起电话费或者通讯设备落后，而无法和家人保持联系。

为了帮助这些孩子，腾讯手机充值、腾讯公益、壹基金于2016年联合发起的「回声计划」，并在全国多个贫困村建立儿童服务站，提供亲情热线，让留守儿童能和远在千里的父母能够说上一句话。每当消费者选择使用微信手机充值功能时，腾讯都会将一部分收益捐赠给「回声计划」。

智威汤逊为此制作的广告片《请给我们一首歌的时间》，旨在提升消费者对「回声计划」的认识，并鼓励消费者通过微信或者QQ钱包充值，而不是竞争服务来增加手机电话额度。

在此次影片中，贵州农村的孩子们在他们的父母离开后吟唱着《鲁冰花》，一首从小就被父母教导的讲述了母子亲情的歌。一个小女孩说，她很希望她的妈妈能够教她一首新的歌。这部影片促使观众通过使用腾讯手机充值来为留守儿童实现和父母沟通的希望。

「为爱充值」广告战役于七月二十日在社交媒体上发布，在第一周仅在腾讯视频就获得了近200万次浏览，腾讯公益的捐款数，两日即达到30万。截止8月4日，该视频总浏览数已达3000万。

「中国消费者崇尚能够创新世界的品牌。他们也想改变自我。『为爱充值』在鼓励消费者利用腾讯功能去做一点改变的同时还有助于提升品牌形象。」上海智威汤逊执行创意总监胡岗说。

「如今互联网已实现连接一切，包括连接人心。腾讯手机充值努力让留守儿童和爸妈多说几句话，让他们的心更加紧密的连接。」腾讯FiT金融市场部总经理说道。

Grey Group has acquired a majority stake in hug digital, an independent regional digital marketing agency, based in the Middle East. The agency provides digital campaigns, social media, content, influencer and activation marketing, web and mobile app development, media planning and buying as well as digital research, analysis and social listening.

The agency was founded in 2009 by Oussama Jamal (chairman) and Tim Baker (CEO). As chairman and CEO respectively, Jamal and Baker will continue to head the hug digital operations whilst working closely with Nirvik Singh, chairman and CEO of Grey Group Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, to set the overall strategic digital growth plan for the region.

Headquartered in Dubai (UAE), with offices in Egypt and India, hug digital employs around 145 full-time staff. Its blue-chip client roster includes more than 70 international, regional and local brands such as Americana (Hardees, TGI Fridays, Krispy Kreme), Al-Futtaim (Al Futtaim automotive group, Toyota, Honda, Lexus), Majid Al Futtaim (Ski Dubai, Magic Planet, iFly, Little Explorer, LEGO), Commercial Bank of Dubai, Dubai Tourism, HMD Nokia, Shell, Festival City Group, Nestle’s Maggi, Clorox, Sarai by MNHD and Emaar among others.

"Grey Group's acquisition of hug digital enhances our leadership position in the MENA creative and digital space," said Singh. "It underscores Grey's commitment to expand our offering and deliver quality, value-added services to our clients."

“We’re very excited about our new partnership,” said Jamal. “We are eager to take our digital expertise and knowledge of the MENA region and scale this with WPP and Grey Group. This acquisition will enable us to access resources that will expand our capabilities and accelerate our growth."

“This deal cements seven years of hard collective work from our dedicated team. We are proud to become part of the world’s largest communications group, WPP, partner with Grey and continue our digital journey with the same enthusiasm as the day we started hug digital,” said Baker.

The two added that the acquisition will bring additional benefits to clients of hug digital, including access to Grey Group's offerings in production, GreyWorks; its shopper-marketing agency, Grey DPI; and its highly-regarded creative and design technology company, Vinyl-I. Similarly, Grey Group's clients from across the globe will benefit from the digital technology and local expertise of hug digital.

Maxim's, one of the biggest mooncake retailers in Hong Kong, has tapped into WeChat moments ads to sell its mooncake products for the first time, and the result has been promising.

Two hours after Maxim’s WeChat moments ad launch, over 7,000 boxes of Maxim’s mooncakes were sold, with an average sale of 3,500 boxes per hour versus 1,333 boxes before the launch of WeChat moments ads.

The ad also achieved an 8% click-through rate (CTR) with 91% click-to-sale conversion rate, reaching a record-breaking business performance of 100x ROI.

WeChat told Marketing that Maxim's winning formula includes the time which the promotion was rolled out, as well as the convenient buying and sharing experience it provided.

The campaign aims to strengthen awareness of the mooncake products, and further converse users to actual sales on WeChat Pay.

The promotion on the platform was rolled out before the official mooncake launch of Maxim's. The early-bird discount generated buzz on the platform.

Customers were then encouraged to click on the link on the WeChat moments ads, in which they would be able to buy the mooncake through wallet purchase, or send mooncake e-coupons to friends and families.

(Gallery available on web)

"As a pioneer advertiser of WeChat moments ads in Hong Kong, we find this new digital advertising channel effective at building awareness of our mooncake products, successfully conversing users to actual sales on WeChat Pay and bridging the gap from ad awareness to business results,” said Raymond Tong, chief operating officer (headquarters and branded products) of Hong Kong Maxim's Group.

"Mobile social communication apps have become integral to our daily lives and we've seen enormous growth in WeChat's user base in Hong Kong," added Poshu Yeung, vice president of Tencent International Business Group. "With our social ads’ sophisticated targeting capabilities to reach consumers, we are proud to support Maxim's in rolling out its moments Ads campaign, helping to drive both awareness and business results of its signature products through WeChat moments."

Media Prima has reported a 21% growth in second quarter revenue for the financial period which ended 30 June 2017 (Q2 FY17), as its core advertising revenue began to gain momentum following a slow start earlier this year. The group recorded a revenue of RM601 million for the six-month period of 2017, which can mainly be attributed to changes in consumer behaviour and digital disruptions that have impacted the media industry in general.

It recently concluded its RM105 million acquisition of REV Asia Holdings, which will "significantly strengthen Media Prima’s digital reach to derive revenue from the growth in digital advertising," Tan Sri Ismee Ismail (pictured), chairman of Media Prima, said.

Capitalising on the increased demand among consumers for digital content and e-commerce, Media Prima also launched new initiatives to enable new revenue streams and put the focus back into its advertising revenue. Home shopping platform CJ Wow Shop contributed significantly to the group's revenue, with sales in excess of RM90 million during the first year of operations. Media Prima intends to increase CJ Wow Shop's exposure to further leverage Malaysia's growing home shopping and e-commerce market. It also aims to expand by including more local product offerings.

The Group's out-of-home (OOH) and digital media businesses recorded 10% and 22% growth in revenue respectively during the first six months of 2017. According to Datuk Kamal Khalid, group MD of Media Prima, the launch of new advertising sites along the MRT Sungai Buloh – Kajang Line and the increase in digital content consumption among consumers "bodes well" for both platforms moving forward.

Khalid added that Media Prima will continue to defend its traditional sources of income and increase efforts in growing new revenue streams. Over-the-top (OTT) content, digital publishing and market leadership in broadcast will be the main focus areas for these goals.

Its OTT service tonton recently inked a strategic marketing partnership agreement with DST, a telco in Brunei, to bring the service to the country. This marks its second venture outside of Malaysia this year. Earlier this year, the Group signed a similar deal with Singapore telco Singtel to launch tonton on its video streaming app CAST.

Media Prima Radio Networks (MPRN) also boosted its digital presence by launching podcast platform Ais Kacang and e-commerce service SuperDeals. Both Ais Kacang and SuperDeals offer MPRN new ways to attract advertisers by offering an all-rounded solutions which include on-air and digital exposure.

Primeworks Studios, the content creation subsidiary of Media Prima, is also currently in talks with international content producers to co-produce content. It recently partnered with Netflix to allow its Malaysian customers to now enjoy their “favourite” local films and series on its platform. On the digital publishing front, the group aims to transform its print platform into a leading player in digital publishing, with the focus still on The New Straits Times Press (NSTP) to be a digital-first content provider.

Last month, Media Prima appointed Khalid as the group’s new MD, replacing Datuk Seri Amrin Awaluddin, who has been re-designated as executive director effective 1 August. In addition to his duties, Khalid has also been named the group chief operating officer of Media Prima.

SCS Butter has revealed a new logo in an update which aims to better reflect its values but looks to still pays tribute to its 112-year history. This comes as the brand prepares to have a more future-ready identity. In a press statement unveiling the logo change, Dilpreet Kaur, marketing manager, SCS, said the reason for the update was because the SCS logo and packaging is one of the brand’s most visible and valuable assets.

Kaur added that the new logo and brand image also reflects the brand’s enthusiasm and ideals of simply delivering the highest quality of products. It is also to show how the brand is staying current and pushing into new markets as it looks to evolve and innovate.

The new SCS star has been two years in the making, and boasts a new font which aims to be more modern and easier to read, while the lighter lines of the new star illustrate the brand’s dynamism and vitality. The star also encases all three letters of the logo, in a bid to hold the letters closer together. It also kept its blue colour hue, with a brighter new tint to demonstrate its desire to greet new customers while staying in touch with loyal users of the brand.

“From day one, our intention has always been to build this brand for every type of consumer needs. In today’s world, consumers are more empowered than ever, they want to be assured that the ingredients they use for family and friends are of the highest quality,” Kaur said.